Media round-up! News of Wendy’s Founder’s Week of Action from across the nation…

November 25th, 2013

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It’s that time again! For the past few weeks, articles have been piling up about the Wendy’s campaign, but — amidst all the beautiful photos and reports pouring in from across the country — we haven’t had a chance to share them. And that can only mean one thing… It’s time for a media round-up.

Here below are highlights from three excellent articles as well as a comprehensive list from this wildly successful week of action:

Last week was Founder’s Week at Wendy’s, when the fast food giant celebrated the values of its founder Dave Thomas. Advocates of farm worker rights gathered at Wendy’s restaurants in St. Louis, Miami, and dozens of other cities to call on Wendy’s to live up to its corporate values by signing a fair food agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

On Saturday over 200 protesters gathered in Wendy’s home town of Columbus, Ohio. Students, faith groups, and union supporters marched from the Wendy’s store south of the Ohio State University campus to another Wendy’s location a mile and a half away.

“As Wendy’s celebrates Founder’s Week and champions such values as ‘Treat People with Respect,’ ‘Give Something Back,’ and ‘Do The Right Thing,’ we are calling on Wendy’s to use this week as an opportunity to turn the values it claims to support into a reality by ensuring that as farm workers, our basic human rights and dignity are respected,”said Gerardo Reyes of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

“Wendy’s campaign to modernize its brand doesn’t fool young people and it doesn’t fool Ohio,” said Cruz Bonlarron Martinez, an OSU student and member of the Student/Farmworker Alliance. “Students and residents in Wendy’s home town will not stop until Wendy’s makes a verifiable commitment to the Fair Food Program and does its part to end farm worker exploitation in its supply chain.”

[…] As Wendy’s continues to stubbornly keep themselves stuck in the mud, the CIW is escalating their campaign with this week’s events. The weeklong series of events coincides with Wendy’s own Founder’s Week, which is their celebration of the late founder Dave Thomas’s corporate values, such as integrity, respect and responsibility. The marches, letter deliveries and protests that are being organized by the CIW in cities across the country will highlight the inconsistencies between Wendy’s professed values and their refusal to join the FFP. “We find it incomprehensible that they are doing this while they have yet to sign onto the Fair Food Program,” says Rodriguez.

The tragic irony is that Emil Brolick, the CEO of Wendy’s, was the president of Taco Bell when it became the first fast food chain to sign onto the Fair Food Agreement. He proclaimed then that Taco Bell was leading the way toward solutions in the fast food industry and that “We hope others in the restaurant industry and supermarket retail trade will follow our leadership.” Now, at the helm of Wendy’s, Brolick’s words feel cruelly insincere.

Rodriguez says that their recent recognition by the Roosevelt Institute, as well as other honors from the White House and the United Nations, underscores the fact that the FFP “is the future, the only way forward.” She continues, “Wendy’s faces a choice: to be the last holdout of major fast food corporations or to join the others that have already signed on.” Despite Wendy’s claiming that they already follow guidelines for purchasing from fair growers, it’s not enough for Rodriguez. “We need them to commit to the program so that we can ensure they only buy from the participating farms and stop buying from farms that abuse their workers. That’s the only way we can ensure that they do this, words are not good enough, we need them to commit.”

This week, our friends at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies are commemorating Wendy’s annual Founder’s Week (November 11-17) – but with a bit of a twist from how the pigtailed fast food chain is celebrating the week itself. […]

[…] Actions in cities across the country this week will highlight the fact that the values of Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas’ stand in stark contradiction to Wendy’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program, and each day, one of Wendy’s Founder’s values will be updated to reflect the reality of Wendy’s decision not to participate in the Program:

Quality is our Recipe –> Inequality is our RecipeDo the Right Thing –> Do the Right Thing and Join the Fair Food ProgramJust Be Nice –> Justice Would be NiceProfit Means Growth –>People Over ProfitGive Something Back –> Give a Penny Back

And finally, don’t miss this additional broad coverage of the Wendy’s Founder’s Week of Action!

That’s a wrap for the Wendy’s Founder’s Week of Action. Between the dozens of massive actions across the country and the ever-growing petition with 120,000+ signatures, the pressure on Wendy’s to honor its founder’s values and join the Fair Food Program grows stronger every day. And the campaign has only just begun, with much, much more in store this season for the hamburger giant which stands alone among fast-food industry leaders in turning its back on real social responsibility.

How much longer will it be, Wendy’s? It’s never too late to do the right thing…